Reports: Europeans funding anti-Israel hate and violence

Monday, April 07, 2008 |
by Staff Writer

Various reports published last week showed that European governments and mainstream media are funding Palestinian Arab individuals and organizations that encourage hatred of Israel and perpetuate the Middle East conflict.

In perhaps the most brazen example, the village leader (mukhtar) of the eastern Jerusalem Arab village of Silwan (City of David) told Israel National News that a German news agency had recruited and paid activists from his village to stir up trouble with Israeli authorities and archeologists conducting a dig in the community in order to manufacture news stories.

Israeli media watchdog Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) released a report last week that showed ongoing financial backing for the Bethlehem-based Palestinian news agency Ma'an by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands.

PMW Director Itamar Marcus reported that Ma'an, especially its Arabic-language site, openly honors fallen Palestinian terrorists as "holy martyrs," thereby encouraging others to follow in their footsteps, and continues to refer to all of sovereign Israel as "occupied Palestine."

Marcus and his co-director Barbara Crook noted:

"Hate incitement, including denial of Israel's existence and glorifying terror, is universally accepted as a paramount cause of continued Palestinian terror. These governments, together with governments who have blindly funded Palestinian schoolbooks, bear direct moral responsibility for the continued hatred that is being ingrained into future Palestinian generations."

On a wider scale, Israel-based NGO Monitor pointed out in its report on European Union funding last week that European financial aid continues to reach Palestinian groups masked as non-governmental organizations, but which in reality are at least partially engaged in anti-Israel incitement.

The report noted that the funds are being provided under EU frameworks that promote peace and the safeguarding of human rights, but are being used in a way that demonizes the Jewish state, stirs up hatred and denies Israeli Jews their human rights.

Often, these Palestinian NGOs will the logos of their EU financiers on anti-Israel publications they put out in order to provide the hate literature a degree of legitimacy.

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